Gratz College Newshttp://gratz.edu
enCopyright 20152015-03-02T22:31:13+00:00Press Release: New Degree Serves FBO Leadershiphttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/press-release-new-degree-serves-fbo-leadership
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/press-release-new-degree-serves-fbo-leadership
This summer Gratz College will welcome its first cohort of graduate students pursuing a Master of Science degree in Non-Profit Management for Faith Based Organizations (FBOs). Because FBOs are unlike other not-for-profits, this 36 credit Masters of Science is being offered to serve the unique needs of professional adults in meeting the demands of operating a successful nonprofit while reflecting the values of a faith tradition. The tasks of managing staff, working with volunteers, providing services or spiritual assistance, and raising funds can be challenging and often frustrating when faith-based organizations also have to operate in the secular world of funding, regulations, marketing, competition, and cash flow. These demands can tax even the best managers. To that end, Gratz College offers one of the very few graduate level non-profit management programs designed exclusively for leaders and managers of faith-based organizations.

This program, accelerated by design, will strengthen the capacity and build the skills and knowledge of clergy, educators, executives, and even lay leaders in the nonprofit sector. Participants in the MSNPM program will expand their understanding of the economic, ethical, organizational, social, and behavioral concepts, which are critical to the management of faith-based organizations within the nonprofit sector. This practitioner-oriented program emphasizes managerial development and leadership skills as well as a consideration of ethical and social principles as they apply to real world situations in a 21st century global community. Through the design, implementation and presentation of applied research projects, students demonstrate that they have mastered the application of theoretical knowledge to the solution of practical nonprofit organizational challenges. Case studies and projects will focus on diverse faithbased organizations including social service providers, community service organizations, hospitals, educational institutions and religious entities as well.

Graduates of MSNPM-FBO will Demonstrate the Ability to:

1. Lead diverse organizations toward the ethical achievement of strategic goals
2. Articulate and implement change in diverse circumstances
3. Analyze organizations from the structural, financial, human resource, and marketing
perspectives
4. Apply research and data to decision-making
5. Apply the functional areas of management and donor relations in nonprofit settings
Accelerated Online Course Format Ideal for the Working Adult
Gratz College offers the convenience of earning this degree online. Courses are offered in 8-week
accelerated format with an average completion time of approximately two years.

Enriching Course Requirements Designed to Maximize Professional Development

Downloads/ Related Links

]]>2015-03-02T22:31:13+00:00Rose Schmukler, Class of 1931http://gratz.edu/news/entry/rose-schmukler-class-of-1931
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/rose-schmukler-class-of-1931
Paintings by Rose Schmukler are on view in the Leona P. Kramer Gallery until March 27, 2015

Rose Schmukler: Gratz College Alumna from the Class of 1931
By Jodi Benjamin for the Gratz College Insider Newsletter

As the writer for The Gratz College Insider, I have had the privilege of interviewing students, professors, board members, alumni and staff, and then sharing their intriguing stories with you. However, the most humbling experience I have had to date was interviewing Rose Schmukler, a Gratz alumna from the class of 1931. At 100 years old, Rose is a talented and prolific painter, who also writes poetry, exercises regularly and attends classes four days a week at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

I met Rose Schmukler on a Sunday morning at her daughter Anita's apartment. When I entered the apartment, Rose jumped up to greet me with a spryness that belied her age. As I looked around, I noticed that there were paintings everywhere, adorning the walls and stacked in piles in the corner of the room. These paintings were the work of Anita's favorite artist: her mother, Rose Schmukler, who took up painting 23 years ago – at the age of 77.
When Rose was widowed after 55 years of marriage, Anita encouraged her mother to take a class at the Katz Jewish Community Center (JCC) in Cherry Hill. Although she had always doubted her artistic ability, Rose selected a watercolor class because, as she matter-of-factly explained, "it was at 10:00, and that's when the bus got there."

To her surprise, Rose shined with a burst of latent, unexpected and prolific artistic talent. Rose began her foray into painting with a meager palette of watercolors, like the ones used by schoolchildren. She has since graduated to a professional set of paints and brushes, given to her by Anita. Rose has worked primarily with watercolors, but at the age of 99, she decided to change things up a bit and try acrylics. Over the past 23 years, Rose has created hundreds of works, with paintings exhibited at the Center on the Hill at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill and at the Katz JCC. Currently, her work is on display at the Leona P. Kramer Gallery here at Gratz College.

Well before she took up painting, Rose wrote poetry. In fact, during my visit that Sunday morning, she recited with emotion the lyrical lines of an original poem. Although she wrote this poem over 20 years ago, she delivered every line from memory! (Click here to view Rose reciting the poem on Youtube)

At the age of 100, Rose has also begun experimenting with a different form of expression: journal writing. During our interview, she produced a journal entry that she had recently written about Rebecca Gratz, who established the first Sunday school for the religious education of Jewish children. In this entry, Rose described her own experience at the school, explaining that she “showed up to hear bible stories, sing along and learn the hymns.” She added that she never missed a class and that her only requirement was to bring a penny each week.

Still awed by Rebecca Gratz for her beauty, her independence and her "yiddishkeit," Rose painted a portrait of Rebecca from a picture in a magazine. Fittingly, the portrait is included in the collection of Rose’s work that is being exhibited at Gratz College, the school which bears Rebecca Gratz’s family name.
After her Sunday school days, Rose continued her Jewish education during high school – and she has the photographic evidence to prove it: a fading black-and-white picture of her Gratz College graduating class, the class of 1931. At that time, Gratz did not have a formal high school division as it does today, but high school students were able to earn a Hebrew Teachers Diploma.

Although she walked almost two miles in all kinds of weather to get there, Rose never missed a Gratz class during high school. “I loved it,” she told me, “the music, the prayers, the people.” She then broke out into song, reciting words she had learned over 80 years ago. She also expressed elation at returning to Gratz – albeit in a different location – for the opportunity to exhibit her paintings.

As a Gratz student, Rose had had the opportunity to serve as an assistant teacher at a local Sunday school. This experience was the closest she came to pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher. The harsh economic realities of the times thwarted this dream, forcing her to instead enter the labor force as a factory worker after high school. While working oppressively long hours for meager pay, Rose became involved in the labor movement. In fact, she was committed to social justice throughout her life. She supported racial and gender equality and participated in demonstrations to end war, hunger and poverty. To this day, she concludes her Friday night prayers with the words “Please make peace in the troubled world.”
Although Rose never fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher, she has become a lifelong student. At 100 years old, she takes the bus to the Katz JCC for classes: Monday is art; Tuesday is Yiddish; Wednesday is current events; and Friday is opera.

Each day, she arrives at the JCC early so that she can exercise by walking a half-mile before class begins. In fact, toward the end of our interview, Rose stood up and took a few laps in the hallway of her daughter’s apartment. In addition to exercise, she has always been committed to healthy eating – a regimen that certainly seems to have served her well.
At the end of the interview, when I asked Rose for some parting words of wisdom, she said simply, “Life is for living.” It is sound advice from a woman who has been living life to the fullest for 100 years.

Rose Schmukler’s paintings are currently on exhibit through the end of March at the Leona P. Kramer Gallery at Gratz College. The gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, the gallery is usually open on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but visitors should call first to confirm.

Rose’s artwork will also be on display during a special event at the College on Thursday evening, February 26.That evening the public is invited not only to browse Rose’s works, but also to attend a fascinating presentation by another Gratz alumnus, Eric Goldman, who will speak on “Israel Society through Film.” For more information on the February 26 program, contact Mindy Cohen, 215-635-7300 x155.

Rabbi Hirsh is a nationally-known Jewish educator who has worked with Reform, Conservative, Renewal and Reconstructionist communities throughout North America. A graduate of Vassar College and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Hirsh has dedicated her rabbinate to ensuring that Jewish education is engaging, relevant and meaningful for everyone involved.

Rabbi Hirsh directed two congregational schools in the greater Philadelphia area over a period of eleven years. In addition to school and congregational environments, she has taught and worked in informal Jewish settings such as overnight camps and youth groups. Most recently, she served as Director of Education for the Reconstructionist Movement. In that capacity, she trained and mentored dozens of rabbis, Jewish educators, and communal leaders. Rabbi Hirsh also writes both formal and experiential curricula for elementary age children, teens, families and adults.

The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) promotes Judaism and our heritage through innovative programs and shared resources. The ISJL delivers rabbinic services, an education program, and cultural events to communities seeking new solutions, or where Jewish resources are limited. The ISJL also provides historic preservation and community engagement throughout the South.

Gratz College has had a close relationship with ISJL because our extensive online programming serves Jewish professionals in geographic areas who have limited access to professional development.

]]>2014-06-16T21:57:33+00:00Dr. Joshua Gutoff presents at the NRJE Conferencehttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/dr.-joshua-gutoff-presents-at-the-nrje-conference
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/dr.-joshua-gutoff-presents-at-the-nrje-conference
Dr. Joshua Gutoff, Assnt. Professor of Jewish Education, presented a paper entitled, "A Framework for a Moral-Imaginative Pedagogy of Talmudic Narratives" at the 28th Annual Conference of the Network for Research in Jewish Education

]]>2014-06-16T19:35:00+00:00Mid-Career Fellows Conference in Chicagohttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/mid-career-fellows-conference-in-chicago
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/mid-career-fellows-conference-in-chicago
Congratulations to the Gratz College Mid-Career Fellows for completing their first full year of study towards a Master of Arts in Jewish Education or a Master of Arts in Jewish Communal Service.

Gratz College Mid-Career Fellows joined Fellows from four other institutions across the United States and Canada for a conference and networking in Chicago in mid May.

]]>2014-05-27T15:46:06+00:002014 Commencement Speecheshttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/2014-commencement-speeches
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/2014-commencement-speechesCongratulation to the Gratz College Class of 2014!

We welcome you to read the speeches offered at the graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 18, 2014.

At age 21, a 2 year "sentence" as an "army wife" in Germany seemed like a life time and major interruption to Mickie Rosen’s fine art education and a budding career as a fashion illustrator. Little did she know that she would win a Ziess Icon Camera in Germany and have the time of her life shooting pictures all over Europe. Years later a trip to Japan introduced her to Nikon 35mm film cameras and range of lenses at irresistibly low prices. Thereafter her photographic interests focused mainly on capturing her children and grandchildren as they grew, recording special occasions and wonderful vacations. All along though, she enjoyed turning macro images into abstractions that left the origin of the photo a mystery.
Mickie's only "formal" education in photography was one course at Tyler School of Fine Art, where she earned my BFA Degree at age 38. That course challenged her to shoot photos in series and introduced her to the darkroom. After Tyler she went on to receive a M.S. Degree in Art Therapy from Hahnemann University where she continued as a faculty member in the Creative Arts Therapy Graduate Program until 1992. For the next 32 years she worked as an art therapist and group psychotherapist. Both prior to and since her retirement in 2000, she has exhibited her prints and oil pastel paintings widely in numerous juried/group exhibitions and 18 solo exhibitions, the more recent shows have displayed her digital fine art photography.
Mickie is proud that this new medium has won many awards including the Judges Award for a Body of Work at the 19th Phillips Mill Annual Juried Photography Exhibition, the Committee Award at the 20th Phillips Mill Annual Juried Photography Exhibition and Best of Show at the 60th Tri/State Artists Equity Exhibition at the Berman Museum. In 2011 she was awarded the Best of Show at the Churchville Photography Club's 21st Open Competition. She has won a Merit Awards 3 Single Image Contests for her photages that appeared in Black and White Magazine Special Issues #80, #95 and #101.

ARTISTS STATEMENT

Printmaking and drawing had been my media of choice until photography and the digital darkroom captured my interest. Most digital photographers are interested getting their best image in camera, spending little time in post processing on the computer. I on the other hand take great pleasure in spending numerous hours exploring the endless possibilities that digital technology has made available to me as a fine artist. The happy accidents that occur when experimenting with the tools in Photoshop parallel the surprise and excitement that happens when pulling a print off my etching press.
Creating realistic photographic compositions is not my primary intention when I shoot with a Sony NEX7 or Canon S100. My aim is to collect a wide range of subjects and textures that may be combined with other photos or elements from my drawings, monotypes, or collagraphs. These mixed media works I call "Photages". I enjoy compositing and/or transforming what the camera captures, looking for similarities in the shapes and forms in nature or structures of man. With Photoshop CC as my brush and photographs as my palette, I strive to create work that maintains the qualities of my drawings, etchings or silkscreen prints. I like play "Hide and Seek" with the viewer in my images to evoke a sense of mystery and the surreal.

About Joel Sloane
My art and experience as an artist has evolved over the past seven years through my participation at the Whitemarsh Art Center in Lafayette Hill. As a board director and former president, I focused my efforts on growing and expanding the Art Center as a community resource.
In recent years I have been developing digital art inspired by spiritual teachings and symbols found within Judaism and other world traditions. My work can be seen as a blending of paths, drawing on archetypal and natural forms to bring beauty and peace into the world.
I encouraged people to take time to develop their own personal creativity and self-expression through art education. Support the Arts with your appreciation, money and most importantly with your own involvement with the Arts and the process of Creation.

Contact the artist at dreamerjws@comcast.net for information about personalized calendars, gifts or customized prints in different sizes.

]]>2014-01-21T08:57:53+00:00ARNOLD AND ESTHER TUZMAN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION FUNDhttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/arnold-and-esther-tuzman-holocaust-education-fund
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/arnold-and-esther-tuzman-holocaust-education-fund
Aharon Tuzman, who would later take the name Arnold on the shores of America, was born in the village of Zaklikow, Poland in 1915, the fourth of five sons of Symma and Mordechai Tuzman.

Determined. Resourceful. Passionately devoted to his family. These qualities were already blossoming in the eight year old who took to the streets of Zaklikow with a basket of warm zemalach—the sweet buns made in his family’s home bakery (a large oven)—to sell them and make a few groschen for his family.

After the Nazis invaded Poland, his mother, already widowed, told Arnold to flee his native village to save his life. Bribing an old farmer with two bottles of schnapps, Arnold and his brother Maier crossed the Polish Russian border buried in a hay wagon, covering their mouths so they would not scream out when Nazi border guards, wielding pitchforks as prods, stabbed the hay.

Arnold’s indomitable will to survive kept his brother and him alive in the Siberian labor camp to which they were sent as prisoners. When a call came for able-bodied men to serve in the Polish Russian army, Arnold volunteered immediately. Rising to the rank of Chief Quartermaster, he saved not only his and his brother’s lives, but also provided life-restoring supplies to countless Jewish survivors of concentration camps.

Arnold was still in uniform when on the heels of V-day, he was asked to give a ride to a beautiful young woman. Suspecting his passenger was a Jew (who did not recognize him as one), Arnold asked if she knew the Hebrew blessing recited by women upon lighting the Sabbath candles. When tears filled Esther’s eyes in response, Arnold had more than his answer. He married Esther Knobel in 1946. At the end of 1947, the two immigrated to the US, crying in each other’s arms as they passed the lady with the torch.

Unstoppable, Arnold moved from shoulder pad maker to buttonholes, to chicken farmer, door-to-door roofing and siding salesman, deliveryman for Frank’s Beverages soda and seltzer, and self-taught stock market maven on his way to becoming proprietor of the Jenkintown Window Cleaning Company. In 1961, he relocated his family from a chicken farm near Vineland, New Jersey to the Philadelphia area, where he remained a part time resident, eventually trading the cold for golfing in Pompano Beach, FL.

From his early days in the “golden land of America,” Arnold made charitable giving a priority— no matter how limited his resources. A chicken farmer with little to his name, he lined up his children just before sundown every Friday to put coins in a tzedakah pushka, a small tin box hanging on a nail on a wall. Once a month, the family emptied the box together, carefully counting the coins so Arnold would know just what to write on the check that would fly in an aerogram to an orphanage in Israel.

Over time, Arnold and Esther became devoted benefactors of Boys Town Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University, Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, as well as countless other Jewish and non-sectarian organizations. Toward the end of his life, Arnold became particularly interested in supporting the work of interfaith organizations.

Arnold’s unwavering commitment to help others help themselves continued throughout his lifetime.

Arnold Tuzman died peacefully at Warminster Hospice of Abington Hospital on December 12, 2013, surrounded by his family chanting the sacred Sh’ma prayer as he took his final breaths. Arnold is survived by three children, nine grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

A larger than life presence in his family and friends’ lives, Arnold will live on in the hearts of all who knew him.

ARNOLD AND ESTHER TUZMAN HOLOCAUST EDUCATION FUND

To share the blessings of life and prosperity granted them was a guiding principle in Arnold and Esther’s life together. Both believed that for people to care for each other is our greatest responsibility; to give, a duty —and a joy—rooted in Jewish tradition.

In 2009, following the death of Esther, his life partner of 63 years, Arnold endowed The Esther Tuzman Holocaust Education Fund at Gratz College.

Now, upon Arnold’s death and in tribute to Arnold and Esther’s unfathomable courage, their commitment to their roots, and to “never forgetting,” the Tuzman family is proud to rename the fund, the Arnold and Esther Tuzman Holocaust Education Fund.

The Tuzman endowment serves to underwrite the costs of the Arnold and Esther Tuzman Memorial Holocaust Teach-In, a program of studies hosted by Gratz College, aimed at providing public and private school educators the tools needed to effectively incorporate Holocaust education in the classroom curriculum.

]]>2013-12-21T01:41:05+00:00Gratz at URJ Biennialhttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/gratz-at-urj
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/gratz-at-urj
Gratz College students from different parts of the country met at the URJ Biennial in San Diego this past week.

From left are Mid-Career Fellows Rabbi Holly Cohn from Texas and Ronnie Weisberg McCarthy from California, both studying for a Master of Arts in Jewish Communal Service.

To the right is Doctorate in Jewish Education student Emily Aronoff Teck from Florida.

]]>2013-12-16T21:57:06+00:00Prof. Michael Steinlauf speaks about controversial film Pokłosie (Aftermath)http://gratz.edu/news/entry/prof.-michael-steinlauf-speaks-about-controversial-film-Aftermath
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/prof.-michael-steinlauf-speaks-about-controversial-film-Aftermath
Dr. Steinlauf will participate in two panels discussing the new controversial Polish feature film dealing with the Holocaust and Polish memory. The movie, called Poklosie (Aftermath), is set in a small contemporary Polish town that preserves a terrible secret that gradually comes to light.

]]>2013-06-10T17:26:49+00:00Prof. Joseph Davis participates in the 45th Annual Conference for Association of Jewish Studieshttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/prof.-joseph-davis-participates-in-association-for-jewish-studies-conf
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/prof.-joseph-davis-participates-in-association-for-jewish-studies-conf
Professor Joseph Davis has been invited to participate in a panel discussion to take place at the 45th Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies to be held at the Sheraton Boston from Sunday, December 15 through Tuesday December 17, 2013. The topic of the panel discussion is "Biblical Scholarship in Midievil and Early Modern Ashkenaz: New Dimensions."

PANEL INFORMATION

Chair: Naomi Grunhaus, Yeshiva University;

‘Minding the Gap’: Tracing Biblical Exegesis in Medieval Ashkenaz a Century after Poznanski
Ephraim Kanarfogel, Yeshiva University

Evolving Canon: Rashi Supercommentary in Late Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenazic Biblical Scholarship
Eric Lawee, Eric, Bar-Ilan University

The Range of Bible Reception among Early Seventeenth Century Ashkenazi Jews
Joseph M. Davis, Gratz College

]]>2013-06-10T17:16:35+00:00Dr. Rela Mintz Geffen wins 2013 ASSJ Berman Service Awardhttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/dr.-rela-mintz-geffen-wins-2013-assj-berman-service-award
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/dr.-rela-mintz-geffen-wins-2013-assj-berman-service-award
The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry is pleased to announce that

Dr. Rela Mintz Geffen, Professor of Sociology, is the winner of the 2013 ASSJ Berman Service Award.

The Mandell L. Berman Service Award is given occasionally by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry to a civic or business leader or an academic for a career of distinguished commitment to the social scientific study of Jews through service and/or financial support of such research. Named for a great philanthropist and supporter of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry and various other research entities, the Berman Service Award recognizes the work of leaders in many sectors of the Jewish community whose efforts have advanced the social scientific study of Jewry.

Previous Winners:

2012: Professor Arnold Dashefsky

2011: Edward and Irene Kaplan

]]>2013-05-10T14:45:31+00:00Gratz Students and Alumni Take Actionhttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/gratz-students-and-alumni-take-action
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/gratz-students-and-alumni-take-action

Michael Slutsky, Danielle Selber, Gavy Alter and Adam Steifel

Gratz College and the Jewish Community High School find pride in the fact that many Jewish leaders across the country have grown from our classrooms. Here is another excellent example right here in Philadelphia.

As project director of The Collaborative, Danielle Selber (M.A.J.S. 2011) held a successful event for Jewish young adults who watch the polls together on November 6th while raising money for Hurricane Sandy disaster relief. Funds raised will go to Jewish Federation of Atlantic County.

Collaborative members helping with the event were Gavy Alter, a current Gratz College student, and Danielle’s husband, Michael Slutsky, a Gratz College Jewish Community High School graduate. Gavy is working on her Bachelor degree in Jewish Studies with certificates in Jewish Education and Jewish Early Childhood Education.

As seen through the actions of our students and alumni, the connection between Jewish identity, community awareness and leadership continues to be a core value of Gratz College and the Jewish Community High School.

]]>2012-11-02T17:04:39+00:00Tuition Statementshttp://gratz.edu/news/entry/tuition-statements
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/tuition-statements
Gratz College is happy to announce that our students will now be able to view their Tuition statements using NetClassroom. Once you have had your advisor approve your classes and you are enrolled into your classes by the Academic Affairs Office then within 48 hours you will be able to view your tuition statement.
]]>2011-12-19T13:19:43+00:00Poland Study Travel Experience, Summer 2012http://gratz.edu/news/entry/poland-study-travel-experience-summer-2012
http://gratz.edu/news/entry/poland-study-travel-experience-summer-2012
Experience the Gratz College Summer Study Travel Experience to Poland trough participant Larry Shofer's travel log. The trip was created and developed by Gratz College and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture and the Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland in cooperation with Momentum Tours & Travel.

For more information on future Travel Study Experiences with Gratz College contact Mindy Blechman, mblechman@gratz.edu or 215 635-7300 x 154.